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Running Diesel fuel through a gas engine?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by xhotrodder, Jan 12, 2010.

  1. BigBlockMopar
    Joined: Feb 4, 2006
    Posts: 1,361

    BigBlockMopar
    Member

    "a cup of water" or "just a few times" doesn't get much carbon at all out of the engine.
    You would have to spend at least 15 to 30 minutes trickling water down the carb to get any serious effect.
     
  2. No Cents
    Joined: Feb 28, 2009
    Posts: 335

    No Cents
    Member



    I used Quaker State for years, After seeing inside a motor that used only QS I have never used it again. The motor was FULL of sludge and gunk. Although, the main and rod bearings looked great?!?! (It was tore down because of a cracked head)
     
  3. The Hank
    Joined: Mar 18, 2008
    Posts: 779

    The Hank
    Member
    from CO

    The only reason for non detergent oil is for compressors that I know of , due to the rubber seals ,etc...
     
  4. Henry VIII
    Joined: Mar 30, 2009
    Posts: 272

    Henry VIII
    Member
    from Tulsa OK

    The remedy that I've often heard of, but not tried, is to replace the oil with diesel, start the engine on gasoline, rev it up good one time, drain and replace the diesel with engine oil.
    I've never heard of running a gasoline engine on diesel.

    Back in the day International bulldozers were built to start on gasoline and switch over to diesel after warm. But I don't think it would work the other way around on a car.
     
  5. 35Chevy.com
    Joined: Nov 27, 2007
    Posts: 542

    35Chevy.com
    Member
    from New Jersey

    You cant run a gasoline engine on diesel.
    Unless you had a compression ratio of 15 to 1 and probably not then.
    End of story


    Now lets see some Tech posts.....Its Tech Week

    Gary
     
  6. brad chevy
    Joined: Nov 22, 2009
    Posts: 2,627

    brad chevy
    Member

    I'm 59 now and when Iwas 14 my old man showed me a good trick that worked great.Take air cleaner off,idle up to about 1200rpm and slowly pour transmission fluid in,smokes like hell,but you won"t believe how much better it runs,also he told me and showed me a gunked up engine caused by using Quaker State oil.
     
  7. My dad had a new '57 Ford with a 292. We lived in North Carolina and he was a construction worker. He was working in NY City. I remeber him starting the car and letting it warm up and then backing up to his Mom's kerosene drum and filling the car with kerosene. He mad it to NY.
     
  8. bobscogin
    Joined: Feb 8, 2007
    Posts: 1,771

    bobscogin
    Member

    And you were right!

    Bob
     
  9. wood470
    Joined: May 21, 2008
    Posts: 226

    wood470
    Member

    try pourin rice down the carb with the revs up. Works alright if it doesn t stall
     
  10. J&JHotrods
    Joined: Oct 22, 2008
    Posts: 549

    J&JHotrods
    Member

    The water or ATF does work. Yea, you can do serious damage if one attempts to just pour it down the carb. I'm only 39, but even the older guys in the shop(at that time)would do it. Picture doing a tune up and pulling out some carbon fouled plugs. Maybe it was just my timeframe, but those wonderful smog cars of the 70's and 80's seemed to always carbon up.
    One sharp fella I worked with would grab a clear container, and he'd start with water(you could get away with running it in the shop with water) and unhook a manifold vacuum source, raise the idle accordingly, and let it slurp in the H20 in a controlled manner through the vacuum hose. If he noticed carbon on the plug, he stuck it back in, ran the water or atf, sustain around 3000 r.p.m.s to light it up and burn it off, and then got back to the tune up.
     
  11. Mr48chev
    Joined: Dec 28, 2007
    Posts: 33,861

    Mr48chev
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I've posted it before but I used to use atf slowly dribbled down the carb with the engine running abut 1500/2000 rpm and then slapping the air cleaner back on and taking off up the road. Best to do it way out of town away from anyone's house thought as it will put out a smoke cloud that is unreal. I did it to clean the built up carbon out of my grandfather's 71 Dodge 318 and had to do it about every two months. I've also done it a bunch using a bottle of water dribbled down the carb the same way and diesel will probably work about the same. It used to take about ten miles before that Dodge would really get cleared out and get up and run and it would run fine until he idled it too much. He never drove fast in his life and I seriously doubt he ever broke a speed limit but when he got past 70 he slowed down to where his top speed on the highway was about 35 before we had to take the car away from him.

    I've heard about putting diesel, trans fluid an other concoctions in the oil and running the engine to clean the sludge out but have never done it or personally witnessed it being done. It was usually something that someone had seen their brotherinlaw or some other guy do.
     
  12. flamed34
    Joined: Dec 30, 2009
    Posts: 819

    flamed34
    Member

    Since diesel won't combust in a gasoline engine, if you tried to run straight diesel you'd end up hydro-locking the engine...you'd get the same results as running straight water. Diesel burns due the heat produced under high compression, not because of a spark induced explosion. Diesel engines compression starts around 16:1 and goes up from there. The heads, blocks, pistons, rods, valves, etc are designed around high compression applications. Your gas engine is not - meaning you'd likely end up with bent rods, valves, damaged bearings etc when it hydro-locks.
     
  13. G'day, GM makes a product called Top Engine Cleaner. It is designed to pour down the carb of an engine at full operational temp. You pour the cleaner at a controlled rate until about a third of the can is left. You then dump the rest in to kill the engine. You wait about 30 minutes and then restart the engine. Smokes black as black for about 15 minutes but loosens all the carbon in the combustion chamber. You then have to change the oil. I've been using this product for over 20 years and it just plain works. I look at it like this, if it is good enough for GM to recommend it, it should work.
     
  14. blt2go
    Joined: Oct 27, 2009
    Posts: 551

    blt2go
    Member

    i have to agree with flamed34 i'm afraid you would do serious damage with straight diesel. maybe a low ratio mix as stated before. i'm not suggesting anyone try this but a neighbor of mine had me put borax soap (the gritty lye powder soap) in the intake of his diesel tractor while he was throttling up. scared the crap out of me but it helped unseize the rings and cleared the carbon off the valves. ran great. again don't try this on my suggestion.
     
  15. Is that Dry, boiled, or chicken fried rice?
     
  16. When I was 16 my 75 cutlass developed a bad knock the day after I got it. Fearing a rod knock my dad went to work with the water trick pourin it down the carb. The knock(s) got a lot worse, then cleared up after awhile. It was loose carbon in a 200,000 mile rocket 350. still ran good after that.
     
  17. narlee
    Joined: Dec 7, 2009
    Posts: 240

    narlee
    Member

    When I worked at a service station about 1969 or 70 it seemed like all the cars that were sludged up "specified Quaker State or Pennzoil". I don't know if it was their blend with paraffin base or they were just people that never got their cars warmed up enough.
     
  18. narlee
    Joined: Dec 7, 2009
    Posts: 240

    narlee
    Member

    In the mid 50's GM made some blocks with a high nickel content (I think it was nickel if not someone can correct it). They had trouble with the rings seating so they would pour Bon ami down the carb to get them to seat.
     
  19. Bosco1956
    Joined: Sep 21, 2008
    Posts: 545

    Bosco1956
    Member
    from Jokelahoma


    I have used GM top engine cleaner since the ear;y 70s Worked very well. I had a mech. that worked with me that did the water trick and that also worked.
     
  20. David Chandler
    Joined: Jan 27, 2007
    Posts: 1,101

    David Chandler
    Member

    I've done the kerosene thing. It cleaned out some sludge but also clogged up the oil pump screen, resulting in zero oil pressure. I was lucky as I was watching the pressure and killed the engine as soon as it hit zero. However almost all of these miracle cures are incarnations of snake oil medicine, that only worked if your didn't need them.
    I have heard spraying carb cleaner into an engine at high idle is suposed to remove carbon in the combustion chambers, if you use an entire can of the stuff. I've never tried it for that purpose. I know spraying it at idle will usually stall the engine.
    But I have and still do use two cycle mixed gas on four cycle engines. I'm too cheap to throw out my old chain saw fuel so it goes into the lawnmover or snowblower. Haven't had any issues with it yet.
     
  21. Buck Sharp
    Joined: Oct 30, 2009
    Posts: 224

    Buck Sharp
    Member
    from nebraska

    My father told me about doing it to his sisters car when he was young to what i think was a 50-54? car. It was what they recommended. I thought it was something with the block and rings if i remember right. my dad is now passed. I have heard a gas and diesel mix burning in a motor not a good sound. the rancher made it to town.
     
  22. Straightpipes
    Joined: Jan 25, 2006
    Posts: 1,084

    Straightpipes
    Member

    I have a Fordson tractor that runs gasoline, fuel oil, deisel, kerosine or corn liquor if you wish. This engine was designed to run on either gasoline or kerosine. Runs fine on fuel oil or diesel fuel as long as it's warmed up first with gas. Start on gas and shift it to the second fuel tank which runs whichever.-------Oh, it also has a water bathj aircleaner which the intake is baffled through the water to prevent preignition.

    So, I guess you can run diesel fuel thru a gas engine.
     
  23. QS back then if you did not run engine temp up or lots of short runs you would see sludge
    QS was a Paraffin base like Pennzoil
    i ran it in my 75 Chevy wrecker it ran 615000 mi it was very worn out i kept driving it till i gave the truck to a friend

    now Diesel i run 1/2 Qt per 5 gallons of gas in my HD and truck it is oil it is used to help with detonation slows down the burn time like higher octane but with a Little lube

    it helps with the 10% ethanol that has no top end lube in any more in FL
    or if i am at home i use 100 to 1 2 stroke synthetic oil for top end lube
    like the top end oilers used in old days ( marvel Mystery Oil )
     
  24. Sea foam I think has diesel in it, I use it when i put the bikes and car away for the winter, keeps the gas from going bad.
     
  25. Dynaflash_8
    Joined: Sep 24, 2008
    Posts: 3,038

    Dynaflash_8
    Member
    from Auburn WA

    My ol man had a 48 ford truck with a flathead and stacks up the back of the cab. told me he use to put around 6 gallons of diesel in the tank so that it would "smoke like a diesel out the pipes"
     
  26. EagleFreek
    Joined: Oct 7, 2009
    Posts: 41

    EagleFreek
    Member
    from Not Here

    When I was a teenager I made a smoke screen machine with an extra windshield washer reservoir filled with ATF and ran a tube to the carb. It was a blast. I wrecked the car and gave the engine to a friend of mine and when he took it apart he said it was spotless inside.
     
  27. boldventure
    Joined: Mar 7, 2008
    Posts: 1,766

    boldventure
    Member

    I recently saw some ads for this (SeaFoam) stuff. I'd never heard of it before. Is it a "real" product that actually works? I am by nature suspicious of tune-up in a can products.
    My Dad was a Marvel Mystery Oil guy. He'd put some in the gas tank every once in a while.
     
  28. onlychevrolets
    Joined: Jan 23, 2006
    Posts: 2,307

    onlychevrolets
    Member

    A true story, in 1975 I drove a 1973 Chevrolet pickup from Marietta GA to Toccoa GA ( a little more than a hundred miles )on diesel fuel. No big deal? , well it was a 350 GAS engine in the truck. Some dummy dumped a load of diesel in the regular tank. The truck ran OK but when I cut it off in Toccoa it didn't want to go dead. Crappy gas I thought...well 12 hours later when I tried to start it to come home...it didn't happen. I had to drain the tank in 20 degree weather and fill it with gas...Killed the carb and fuel pump...
     
  29. An old timer showed me this around 1975 or so, great for combustion chamber cleaning.

    Bob
     
  30. Von Rigg Fink
    Joined: Jun 11, 2007
    Posts: 13,418

    Von Rigg Fink
    Member
    from Garage

    this is aside of your question..but propane engines are very clean inside, and the oil looks nice and clean for a long long period of time over a gasoline powered combustion engine.
     

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